McBride, Zollman, Wiesner and Rachel: AAPT Summer 2009

Simulations for Teaching Wavefront Aberrometry
Dyan L. McBride and Dean A. Zollman, Kansas State University
Helmut Wiesner and Alexander Rachel, Ludwig Maximilians University

Based on research in the transfer of student learning, we have developed two interactive visualizations that help students understand the optics of the human eye and recent advances in the use of wavefront aberrometry for vision defect diagnosis. The first visualization enables students to explore the optics related to accommodation of the eye lens, vision defects, and corrective lenses. The second visualization focusing on helping students learn about wavefront aberrometry, a relatively new method of diagnosing vision defects. Along with the visualizations, we will present our initial assessment of the effectiveness of the visualizations.
*Supported in part by NSF Grant DUE 04-27645

Colicchia, Hopf, Wiesner, Zollman: The Physics Teacher (2008)

Pinhole Glasses
Giuseppe Colicchia, Martin Hopf, Hartmut Wiesner, Physics Education, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany & Dean Zollman, Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, The Physics Teacher 46, 26-27 (2008)

Eye aberrations are commonly corrected by lenses that restore vision by altering rays before they pass through the cornea. Some modern promoters claim that pinhole glasses are better
than conventional lenses in correcting all kinds of refractive defects such as myopia (nearsighted), hyperopia (farsighted), astigmatisms, and presbyopia. Do pinhole glasses really give better vision? Some ways to use this question for motivation in teaching optics have been discussed.1 For this column we include a series of experiments that students can complete using a model of the eye and demonstrate issues related to pinhole vision correction.